The Lost Ingredient: Humanity in Rohingyas Crisis

“Human beings must be free and however long they may agree to stay locked up, to stay oppressed, there will come a time when they say ‘that’s it.’ Suddenly they find themselves doing something that they would never have thought they would be doing, simply because of the human instinct that makes them turn their face towards freedom.”

-Aung San Suu Kyi

Churning the pages of newspapers, my eyes got stuck on some heart-wrenching pictures of the Rohingyas, fleeing their country, the Buddhist nation of Myanmar, to save themselves from the brutal action of the military.

The Rakhine state of Myanmar, the place where the Rohingyas primarily reside, has become the site of the genocide that forced them to flee their own country.

All this came in retaliation to the ‘Islamist Jihadists,’ after three border security forces came under attack on October 9, as claimed by the military.

Well, what else we expect from a community that has been devoid of citizenship since Independence, a community whose fundamental rights have been violated from time to time. Isn’t taking up arms one of the only few options left?

While the world looks up to the most iconic pro-democratic leader of the country, the long-celebrated Nobel peace laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, who is the nation’s de facto civilian leader, she, instead, chooses to remain shamelessly silent over the issue.

While most of them have flooded to Bangladesh to seek refuge, some forty thousand have come to find shelter in India, thinking that the saviour of the last resort, would accept one of the ‘most Persecuted minorities of the world,’ but they were proved wrong.

While the United Nations condemns this act, the Union government tries to cover it up stating that the Rohingyas have terror links with ISIS and LeT.

The answer lies in the fact that more than six thousand refugees have been living in the ‘hot spot’ of terror activities in India since past few years, Jammu and Kashmir, but not even a single case of them indulging in any such activities are reported.

Somewhere down the line, is the concealed reason that of the Rohingyas being Muslims, and our country’s current government, Islamophobic?

The government of the country wants these illegal immigrants to be deported as soon as possible, a clear question that arises is where to?

Can India not take the onus of providing them with a safe home, temporarily, and until then, pressurize government of providing its citizens with the basic dignity that they deserve? Or is there no humanity left in this civilized world?